Falling
by Ravin Halfelf
Summary: My take on the missing scenes from when Hiccup gets knocked out while defeating the Green Death to when he wakes up, mostly from Toothless's perspective. Oneshot. Rated T just for of gruesome injury details and amputation.


Falling.

He was falling to his death, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't have his false tailfin, and so he couldn't catch him this time. After hitting the Green Death's boulder of a tail, Hiccup had been knocked out, so even if his tailfin hadn't been burned away he still wouldn't be able to fly. But he did know one thing. His best friend was falling below him and Hiccup didn't have fireproof scales like he did. So if they both had to fall, the best he could do was to protect his friend from the flames. So with two big swoops of his wings, he caught up to Hiccup so that his feet were only a few inches from Toothless's mouth. But the fire was getting too hot. He could tell that the fire would be too much for Hiccup's skin to handle and he didn't have time to get any closer. So with no other choice, he grabbed Hiccup's left foot with his teeth as gently as possible and tugged him into the protection of his wings. But even though he tried his hardest not to bite down too hard, he still tasted blood. _Hiccup's blood._ Suddenly, the ground was below him. With a painful crash, they were on the ground. Everything went black.

~o0o~

Toothless slowly opened his eyes to see the large Viking chief kneeling down beside him. "Oh, son, I'm so sorry," the man sobbed. With a moan of pain Toothless slowly opened his wings to reveal a still unconscious Hiccup curled up in his legs. He felt wetness pooling around his feet, but ignored it. All he was focused on was the steady warmth of life still radiating from Hiccup's body. _He survived._

As soon as the big Viking saw Hiccup, he grabbed him from Toothless's protective grasp and flung his helmet off to check Hiccup's heartbeat. With a relieved sigh, he said, "He's alive! You brought him back alive." Toothless gave him a meaningful look. _Of course I did. Do you really think I would have let him die? _Stoick put a grateful hand on Toothless's head."Thank you, for saving my son." Toothless dropped his head to the ground with a small sigh. _You're welcome._ Just then another large Viking walked up. With a glance down towards Hiccup's legs, he said, "Well, you know, most of him."

Toothless looked down to where the Viking with the long moustache was looking. With a startled gasp, he saw that Hiccup's left leg was dangling dead from about four inches below his knee. There was blood seeping out of the wound and gathering in a small puddle beneath him. Toothless forced himself to get up on his feet so he could move to huddle protectively over his unconscious friend. It was a challenge though because his shoulder was extremely stiff and sore from the crash and it was hard for him to move. Sniffing at Hiccup's leg, he realized that he had bitten down on it with much more force than he had thought. The bone appeared to be crushed, and his calf muscle was shredded pretty badly from where Toothless's teeth had scraped through as he had pulled Hiccup into the protective clutch of his wings. Before he knew what was happening the large Viking that seemed to be Hiccup's father had picked up his son and was carrying him away towards what remained of the fleet of ships. He started yelling orders to the other Vikings, but Toothless wasn't listening. All he cared about was trying to keep up so he could stay with Hiccup. He was limping badly, but he was able to climb onto the ship they put Hiccup on and finally lay down beside him. He put a wing protectively over Hiccup, but almost as soon as he did that Hiccup's father put a hand on his wing.

"I know you are just trying to protect him, but he needs more than that right now. I need you to move out of the way so that we can attend to his leg." Toothless nodded in understanding and withdrew his wing from over Hiccup. Stoick then started tending to the wound, starting by putting a tourniquet around Hiccup's thigh and pulling it tight. Toothless growled in protest when Hiccup jolted in pain as the strap was yanked tight, but Stoick just put a reassuring hand on Toothless's nose and explained that it was necessary to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Toothless still didn't understand fully what Hiccup's father was doing, but he trusted him and so let him do what he had to. Next Stoick carefully cut away the remainder of Hiccup's boot and pant leg, getting them out of the way so that he could fully see the damage. It didn't look good. Gobber walked up to take a look himself.

"I'm sorry, Stoick, but it doesn't look like we will be able to save it. The problem though is that we need to take it off as soon as possible so that infection won't set in, but we don't have a healer with us. It will probably be too late if we wait until we get back to Berk. I'd do it except that the surgery requires two hands."

"I can do it." Toothless looked over to see Hiccup's friend, Astrid. "My mother's a healer and I've watched her do stuff like this lots of times." Toothless sensed how nervous and scared the girl was, but she had lots of bravery in her too.

"Are you sure, Astrid? You do understand how hard this is going to be?" Gobber said with a worried look on his face.

"I have to do it. If I don't he might die. I can't let that happen."

"All right. I'll go get a fire going so we can cauterize it when you're done." Gobber walked over to where the metal grate for fires was and got a fire going within a minute or two. Meanwhile Astrid had gotten her axe and was sharpening it. Toothless still didn't know what they were doing, but so far it didn't look good. When Astrid walked back over to Hiccup and held the axe above Hiccup's leg, Toothless realized with a start exactly what they were planning on doing. Letting out a low growl, he jumped in front of hiccup and shoved Astrid over with his nose, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. The girl fell on the deck of the ship with a small grunt, and then slowly got back up with her hand outstretched towards Toothless.

"It's alright, Toothless. I know it seems like we are hurting him, but you have to trust me. It's for his own good. If we don't do this now, it will only get worse and he could die." Toothless still was hesitant to back away, but when Astrid put a reassuring hand on his head, he finally resented. Astrid resumed her position next to Hiccup, with her axe hovering above his bad leg. With a shaky breath she carefully brought it down and slit through the remaining bits of muscle and bone that were holding onto his foot. Hiccup let out a sharp cry from the depths of unconsciousness, but Stoick was standing ready and before Hiccup could move Stoick's big hands were already pressing gently but firmly down on Hiccup's stomach and knees to prevent him from moving at all.

As soon as she cut through the remaining bits of his leg, Astrid stretched the skin over the wound and stitched it closed with the needle and thread another Viking had prepared for her. When it was closed up sufficiently, she stepped aside for Gobber to come in with a glowing hot broadsword in his hand. He pressed it against the stitches, which invoked another scream of pain from Hiccup. Miraculously he still didn't wake up, but it was obvious from his cries that he could still feel the burning hot metal melting the skin of his leg to seal the wound. Finally, it was over. Toothless rushed back to Hiccup, curling his tail protectively around his friend's shaking form. The boy's face was contorted in a grimace of pain. Toothless purred concernedly and gently nuzzled his face. Sniffing at the still steaming wound, Toothless began to lightly lick it.

Stoick ran up in protest, but Toothless blocked his way. "Don't do that, you'll make it worse!" The Viking said. But to Stoick's surprise, Hiccup's leg immediately stopped steaming and Hiccup visibly relaxed. "What did you do?" Stoick asked curiously. With one last gentle lick, Toothless settled down to wait for them to arrive back in Berk. Stoick realized there must be something in dragon saliva that soothed burns. It made sense when he thought about it actually, seeing as how the fire comes out of their mouth. The saliva must act as a guard and protection against the heat, and it must also work to take away the pain of burns. He would have to remember that for the future.

A few hours later they finally arrived back at Berk. Stoick picked Hiccup up and carried him up the wooden pathway that clung to the side of the cliff with Toothless following closely. As soon as they made it back to the village and up to Hiccup's house, two more Vikings rushed up the stairs to Hiccup's loft to get his bed. After bringing it down, Stoick lay Hiccup down on it. All this time Toothless was sitting nearby, watching everyone carefully. Once Hiccup was safely in his bed, Toothless lay down beside the bed and wrapped his tail around the end of it.

Meanwhile Astrid had run to Gothi's house since the elder was the primary healer of the village and would be the best choice to care for Hiccup. When they both arrived back at the house, Gothi started treating Hiccup's small burns that were on his face and hands. She approved of Astrid's job with his leg, and soon finished doing all she could. All they had to do now was to wait for him to wake up.

Five days later he was still unconscious. Stoick had been able to get some warm broth down Hiccup's throat, but it was obvious that if he didn't wake up soon there was a possibility of him dying of hunger. Gobber had stopped by a few times to take measurements of Hiccup's leg, but most of his time was spent in the blacksmith's shop, busy with something. Finally, on the seventh day, Gobber brought in an odd metal and wood device. Toothless had no idea what it could possibly be until Gobber moved over to Hiccup's leg and strapped the device on. The Night Fury then understood that it must be something like his tail, something that would enable Hiccup to walk again like his leather tailfin enabled him to fly again.

As soon as the metal leg was strapped on, Hiccup groaned and shifted in his sleep. Gobber ran out to tell Stoick, who was out in the village helping the other Vikings turn it into a haven for dragons. Toothless sat up and stared hopefully at Hiccup, desperately wishing that he would wake up. His wish was granted.

**Hiccup's POV**

Hiccup slowly blinked open his eyes feeling like he had a terrible sunburn on every inch of his face. The first things he saw were the eager green eyes of his best friend.

"Hey, Toothless," he said as the dragon excitedly purred and nudged Hiccup's face. "Yeah, I'm happy to see you too bud—OH!" Toothless had stepped directly on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him for a moment. Hiccup gasped as he jolted upright. Suddenly he noticed where he was. "Um, I'm in my house. You're in my house! Does my dad know you're here?" As he was speaking, Toothless was excitedly jumping around the room, knocking over stuff. He jumped up into the rafters and peered happily down at Hiccup, who was still sitting in his bed. "No, no Toothless. Toothless! Oh, come on…" As Hiccup moved forward he noticed a weird feeling in his left leg. Moving the blanket off of him, he saw with a shock that his left leg ended halfway between his knee and where his foot should be. He gasped, before sighing sadly. Toothless jumped down from the rafters and slowly walked over with a concerned look on his face.

Hiccup slowly and cautiously put his good foot and prosthetic down on the ground. Toothless sniffed at the piece of metal before looking up at Hiccup with concern in his gaze. Hiccup looked at him sadly then blew out his air in preparation for standing. He carefully stood up, making sure to keep all of his weight on his right foot. Cautiously, he put some weight on his left leg, before stumbling forward when a shock of pain shot up his leg. Inhaling deeply, determined to tough it out, Hiccup tried again with more confidence, but this time the pain was so great he would have fallen on his face if it wasn't for Toothless jutting his head out to catch him. "Thanks bud," he said as he slowly half limped half hopped towards the door, keeping as much weight as possible on Toothless's back. This was going to be a difficult struggle, but he knew that with his friend by his side, he would get through this. Hiccup pulled open the door to a new life ahead of him.

**AN: Well, how'd you like it? It isn't the greatest and it has been done before but I wanted to write my own take on what exactly I thought happened. I also threw that bit in about Astrid doing it because I thought it helps give a sort of connection with them. I don't know. Also apologies if my description of the cauterization was completely off from what they really did 'back then' but I didn't know what the exact process was so I just sort of wrote what seemed logical. And before you start yelling at me I am perfectly aware that Gobber melted the thread Astrid used into Hiccup's leg and that there is no way that would have happened, but I have no excuse for that. I just thought I had to make them at least stitch it up, but still cauterize it to seal the blood vessels so that it won't be like internally bleeding or something. So again I apologize for the inaccuracy there. But anyway, enough with this painfully long AN. Leave a review!**


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